Recently I have been (I have had been!) interested in accessibility subject.
For example, an accessibility validator says that the page www.cmsmadesimple.org is not accessible because the INPUT on line 97 does not contain alt or label attribute.
However, I am primarly interested in the accessibility of web pages made by CMS Made Simple, not of cmsmadesimple.org site itself.
According to the structure of CMS Made Simple, I think that accessibility depends on three elements:
1) page content
2) page templates
3) css
Obviously, user is the only resposable of 1).
But what can be said of 2) and 3) contained in the default installation? Can they give me a reasonable certainty that the web pages made with CMS Made Simple are accessible? That they satisfy the requirements of accessibility level A, AA or AAA and they can successfully pass the checks of an online validator?
Thanks for any comment.
a general question about cms and accessibility
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bruco
a general question about cms and accessibility
Last edited by bruco on Thu Oct 26, 2006 1:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: a general question about cms and accessibility
Didn't ever run accessibility tests for default templates for mainly two reasons.
1) they don't always work
2) test are either way too strict or way too narrow
those default templates have been created with accessibility in mind all the time. but its best to do a test install and be the judge of that yourself.
Some modules are more accessible than others (like for example googlemaps module doesn't regress to plain text
Accessibility is larger question than just the html code or templates, its a way of thinking about the content and choosing a way to show the content so that anyone will be able to view it properly.
And if you don't like how default templates are arranged (for example menu is before content in source, some say this is bad and some say its good. we chose before because it's easier to understand for people with limited css skills) you can always write your own template and css (and you should as the default templates cant be everything for everybody)
hope this helps
1) they don't always work
2) test are either way too strict or way too narrow
those default templates have been created with accessibility in mind all the time. but its best to do a test install and be the judge of that yourself.
Some modules are more accessible than others (like for example googlemaps module doesn't regress to plain text
Accessibility is larger question than just the html code or templates, its a way of thinking about the content and choosing a way to show the content so that anyone will be able to view it properly.
And if you don't like how default templates are arranged (for example menu is before content in source, some say this is bad and some say its good. we chose before because it's easier to understand for people with limited css skills) you can always write your own template and css (and you should as the default templates cant be everything for everybody)
hope this helps
Re: a general question about cms and accessibility
Let me just say the following: CMS made simple is probably the best tool out there for accessibility websites out of the box. During the last years and months a lot of highly skilled developers have modified CMSMS to meet the most crucial requirements for web accessibility and many more. One very good example is the menu-manager which provides a lot of useful features for accessible menus, sitemaps and stuff like that. Furthermore most forms come with labels associated with input-fields and if you use own templates you will be on the right path.
However there are still some glitches, most of all related to WYSIWYG-output which can get crappy by the time and if you do not take care of it. In addition to that the lack of a good Tidy-Module is one of the things that sometimes drives me mad. But still: CMSMS is my CMS of choice when it comes to simple but accessible websites.
Regards,
Nils
However there are still some glitches, most of all related to WYSIWYG-output which can get crappy by the time and if you do not take care of it. In addition to that the lack of a good Tidy-Module is one of the things that sometimes drives me mad. But still: CMSMS is my CMS of choice when it comes to simple but accessible websites.
Regards,
Nils
